After receiving a perfect game as a Mother’s Day gift from her grandson, Peggy Lindsey, grandmother of A’s pitcher Dallas Braden, had a gift for Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
"Stick it, A-Rod."
The quip was the icing on the cake to what had been a near fairy tale day for Braden, and it happened just a few weeks after the Yankees’ slugger claimed that Braden was not exactly qualified to call him out.
Braden and Rodriguez had a verbal clash during an April 22 game in Oakland when Rodriguez cut across the pitcher’s mound on his way back to first base after a foul pitch. Braden did not appreciate the act, said it violated one of the game’s unwritten rules and yelled at the third baseman for not respecting what he felt was his territory.
Rodriguez brushed off the altercation, expecting the issue to soon fade away.
But Braden and his grandmother had other plans.
"I’m thinking, let’s forget it, let’s forget it," said Lindsey. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she then paused before uttering the phrase that once again brought the feud to the spotlight.
"The way things unfolded, the bigger story is with his mom and with his grandmother," A’s designated hitter Eric Chavez told the Chronicle. "The headline is the special day with his grandmother."
And it was a special day for the two. Braden lost his mother to cancer while he was in high school, leaving him in the care of Lindsey, whom Braden considers "his rock."
After recording the final out, he walked over to the stands and called out to her. The pair, in near tears, then shared a loving embrace. The kind of embrace shared between a man and the mother he had made proud on Mother’s Day.
"It hasn’t been a joyous day for me in a while," Braden told the Chronicle. "To know that I can still come out and compete and play in a game on that day makes it a little better, and with my grandma in the stands – to give her this, together is perfect."
Braden’s accomplishment forced Rodriguez to eat his fair share of crow, and he congratulated the pitcher in his own special way.
"I’ve learned in my career, it is much better to be recognized for all the great things you do on the field," A-Rod said after the Yankees’ 9-3 loss to the Red Sox in Boston. "Good for him, he threw a perfect game. And better yet, he beat the Rays."
When asked to respond to the comments of Braden’s grandmother, he had only one word.
"Uncle."
